Police: Brawl turns ugly at alternative elementary school

Police were called late last week after a seventh-grader was attacked by another student at TOPS K-8, according to an incident report released Wednesday.

In a sixth-period French class, the alleged attacker asked the other student if he knew the “pen to skull trick,” according to the report. The victim apparently asked to be shown.

The alleged attacker, also a seventh-grader, “held the pen in a closed fist and hit him in the head with the pen (approximately) five times causing pain,” officer Scott Hatzenbuehler wrote in his report.

Hatzenbuehler noticed a mark on the left side of the victim’s head with a dried blood mark. The student said it had bled more earlier. He also told police the attacker kicked him about five times on the lower half of his body.

But that may not be what actually happened. A family member of the alleged victim received a call from a school official describing how that 12-year-old instigated the confrontation and that he may be suspended for two days.

Hatzenbuehler encouraged communication with the principal because of conflicting stories.

“It was handled at the school and appropriate discipline was imposed,” Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman Teresa Wippel said. “We don’t talk about the details of an incident, nor do we talk about the specific discipline.”